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Researchers have developed a way of changing the properties of platinum by manipulating the metal at the nanoscale. The method mimics the action of photosynthetic proteins.

Using a method usually more suitable to billiards than atomic physics, researchers from Sandia and Columbia University have created extremely cold molecules that could be used as an improved first step in creating molecular Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs).

University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a theory describing light pulse dynamics in optical fibers that explains how an interplay of noise, line imperfections and pulse collisions lead to the deterioration of information in optical fiber lines. The theory will help to enhance the performance necessary for high-speed optical communication systems like video on demand and ultra-broadband Internet, and the research has helped establish a new field of inquiry -- the statistical physics of optical communications.

University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory in collaboration with chemists from Duke University have recently grown a world record-length four-centimeter-long, single-wall carbon nanotube.

University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory with a researcher from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated a simple and industrially scaleable method for improving the current densities of superconducting coated conductors in magnetic field environments. The discovery has the potential to increase the already impressive carrying capacity of superconducting wires and tapes by as much as 200 to 500 percent in certain uses, like motors and generators, where high magnetic fields diminish current densities.

University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have demonstrated a way to use the random fluctuations that exist naturally in all magnetic systems to perform magnetic resonance studies without disturbing the system's natural state.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are helping the U.S. Navy create the next generation of aircraft carriers by reviewing and analyzing current Carrier Air Wing flight operations, maintenance, and support functions.

A method that uses roughly only one-hundredth the fresh water customarily needed to grow forage for livestock may leave much more water available for human consumption, as well as for residential and industrial uses. As a byproduct, it also may add formerly untapped solar energy to the electrical grid.

Interest in the development of MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) has grown steadily during the past decade. These tiny devices, now used in such applications as auto airbag systems, inkjet printers, and display units, are attractive because they take up little space and require little or no assembly. They also are cheap to produce in batch quantities because they are made with a technology that is already mature -- the microlithography used to make silicon chips.

A wish list for nanotechnologists would likely include a simple, inexpensive means of self-assembling nanocrystals into robust, orderly arrangements, like soup cans on a shelf or bricks in a wall, each separated from the next by an insulating layer of silicon dioxide.